With the increasing use of video cassette recorders (VCRs) in the home, VCRs are being increasingly used for recording broadcast programs for later replay and viewing. Many VCRs are equipped with timing means for starting and stopping recording of programs at times selected by the user. To take advantage of this ability, the user must consult a television schedule, select the programs to be recorded, and enter into the VCR's memory the start time and end time or duration of the selected programs, and channel to be recorded. In some cases this process can be complicated and error-prone. There is a great need for convenient ways of selecting programs to be recorded.
In an attempt to address this problem, some manufacturers have equipped VCRs with bar-code reading wands. Users can pass the wand over a bar-code printed on the television schedule which identifies the channel and time of the selected program. This information is used to set the timing means of the VCR. Another variation on this concept involves use of a sheet of times, dates and channels bearing the associated bar codes. In this case, the user must scan the appropriate bar code on this sheet for time, date and channel corresponding to programs selected for recording.
While these prior-art schemes have somewhat alleviated the difficulties, programming VCRs for recording is still error prone and inconvenient. Attempts have been made to provide improved programming by providing a device which accepts a machine-readable version of the television schedule via the medium of magnetic card, tape or similar means, the user being then offered a display of available programs from which to select. Although this arrangement does represent an improvement over prior schemes, it suffers the disadvantage that the user must obtain the medium on which the schedule is distributed, which may be inconvenient. The media cost and cost of the reading device is also considerable. Another shortcoming of prior-art schemes is that they rely on time-of-day information for starting and stopping recording, with the result that unwanted material can be recorded, or part of the wanted program missed, in cases where actual broadcast times differ from scheduled times. It is also not possible using such schemes to control recording with great precision, with the result that selective recording, as required for example for eliminating advertisements from recordings, is not possible.